


IT Specialist

by iluvaqt



Series: His Best Girl [8]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2015-06-10
Packaged: 2018-04-03 17:47:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4109614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iluvaqt/pseuds/iluvaqt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Without Felicity, but with Diggle's help and a new business partner, Oliver managed to continue to suit up in both parts of his life as the Arrow and as Oliver Queen, CEO of Queen Consolidated until Slade showed his hand and threatened his family. Now Oliver needs her help. Will she give it?</p><p>Casting Freema Agyeman as Mari Jiwe McCabe</p>
            </blockquote>





	IT Specialist

[ ](http://s13.photobucket.com/user/micki34/media/Banners/IMG_74461.jpg.html)

::: ::: :::

“You’ve been using 70 % of JARVIS’ operating potential for the past week. I thought giving you your own lab on the top floor with access to all the latest processors and tech would mean you’d give him back to me, not relocate his mainframe.”

Felicity scoffed at Tony’s dramatics and stopped chewing on the pen she had between her teeth. Her mother said it was a nasty habit, but all geniuses had their vices. “I promise, I’m almost done with your finest work of genius, Tony. JARVIS is helping me test the network coding. If he were a flesh and blood being, we’d be besties and I’m sad to say that I might never have met Steve. JARVIS and I would have been on a state-of-the art yacht in the Cayman's, running world corporations from our lounge chairs while sipping on piña coladas.”

“I’m telling, Cap you said that. He’s going to be so devastated.”

Felicity grabbed the retractable stun rod a certain someone left in her office and jabbed him with it. He yelped. “I promised Bruce I’d get you back for the shock stunt. He said you’d have seen it coming from him.”

Tony smirked. “Oh this is war. He knows that, right?”

“You want to prank war the Hulk? I thought that dance with death was because of the palladium poisoning. You didn’t get your fill with last year?”

Tony gave her a pointed stare. “I prefer calculated risks, and thank you so much for reminding me of the anxiety attacks I still have because of my heroic act of public service, Ms. Smoak.”

Felicity knew then from the intensity of his gaze that they were no longer joking around. “Tony, you need to talk to someone. If not, Pepper, than maybe Rodey or Steve. PTSD is real and you don’t have to go through it alone.”

“Thanks for the girl bonding, but I’m gonna go.”

“Tony,” she called after him pleadingly. 

This was what she was referring to when she called Tony exhausting. She could never tell when he was being serious, sarcastic or pretentious. Pepper had told her that it was safe to listen to what Tony was saying, because even when he was being a narcissistic jerk, he wasn't in the habit of lying and always spoke his mind. So whatever he said always held a measure of truth, even if it was only from his perspective. Even if no one else shared that point of view. She took off her glasses and rubbed the pulsing spot between her eyes. Maybe it was time for another Optometrist visit. She thought her vision was fine, but obviously there was something hinky with her prescription if she was getting headaches this frequently.

::: ::: :::

Some months ago

John prepared himself to butt heads with an obstinate stubborn man. He had believed convincing Oliver to come out of self imposed exile was going to be tough, but it turned out almost blowing himself up on an old land-mine and showing the man newspapers and video footage of what was happening back home and been enough. There was no one who cared more for their family than Oliver. He'd believed that staying on the island was best for everyone. He seemed to get that the only person benefiting from his absence was himself, by hoping to escape his problems.

Oliver had pointed out that he wouldn't know the first thing about saving the family company, and John explained that he'd spoken to Moira about that and she had suggested Walter. Oliver argued that while that might help in the short term, in the long term he didn't know the first thing about being a CEO and he hadn't even finished one college degree let alone held any credentials in business or finance. John suggested that he also might have talked to Lyla about that and she suggested a friend. This potential EA and business guru/partner would be ready to greet them once they got back.

While Oliver was dubious as to how well Mari would fit in with their duo while remaining unaware of his alter-ego, he trusted her business instincts and that's what Oliver Queen needed to save Queen Consolidated. 

He didn't initially plan to ask after Felicity, deciding he really didn't have a right to ask considering he hadn't checked on her after the quake but he grew concerned when Digg made no mention of her and found that feeling worsen when he discovered she'd resigned her position in their IT department.

"What happened to Felicity?" he asked as nonchalantly as possible.

John saw right through his facade and shook his head. "She moved to New York. Last year with all our stuff going on with Vertigo, Walter going missing and the Undertaking, Felicity failed to mention that her uncle who lives in New York was almost killed in that high-tech siege on the city. The one the public swears was an alien invasion but the one the government says was the North Koreans or the Russians. I thought it was something out a Transformers movie but my point is, Felicity is where she needs to be. You got this Oliver and we have your back."

Oliver felt even worse about not being a better friend to Felicity. He had to hear from Lance how he blew it big time not hanging onto a girl like Felicity, even though the Detective sounded relieved to learn that they hadn’t been involved beyond her help in his Hood crusade.

"Did you know I had her in holding last year? We were going to charge her with aiding the vigilante and we had evidence that proved her involvement in cases connected to your work. She gave us nothing. Blithely refused to give you up. Without her, we would have lost the Glades entirely. She saved thousands of lives. I might have been the one with my hands on the device but she was the one that disabled it. I have no doubt if we'd had more time she would have discovered them both. I hope you understand what you lost. You might want to consider grovelling."

While he was disappointed in himself about his under-appreciation and disregard of Felicity. He was hurt that she hadn't even called or checked in when they'd televised his return. But life went on and troubles of the city and his family quickly consumed his attention. Discovering Sara to be alive but hunted by the League of Assassins, and trying to protect the city from all manner of threats, not to mention learning that Thea was Malcolm's daughter, it wasn't really a surprise that Mari was brought into the fold. Mari Jiwe McCabe was an intelligent woman and his lying hadn't improved at all in his time away, she didn't have Felicity's gift with computers but she could use the system. Roy joining in an officially capacity soon after. Granted it was largely because The Brotherhood had decided to use him as a guinea pig but that was just the catalyst.

Mari kept him from falling into the same bed as his father by sharing what she knew about Isabel Rochev. Being in the spotlight for most of her adult life as a world renowned runway model and running her own fashion label, she knew high society circles and those people loved to talk. Of course Isabel lived to make Mari's job difficult by insinuating on a regular basis that Mari must be Oliver's latest conquest but Mari was confident in her position. She was more like Oliver's business partner than his EA, even though that's what her contract stated. When Oliver had needed his shares liquidated and Walter couldn't get the bank to buy them, rather than risk them falling into Stellmoor's hands, Mari bought them and invested in Queen Consolidated. Oliver offered to buy them back after they had caught Tockman but Mari told him unless he wanted to pay the new market price, she was keeping them. Seems when a successful business woman invested heavily overnight, stock prices went up.

It all came to a head when Slade reappeared. Oliver thought he had a handle on things, that he was keeping up. But it all fell apart the moment he found Slade in his home, talking to his mother like an old acquaintance. He needed help. He was experiencing a spiral of doubt like he did when Merlyn had defeated him in his first year back. He tried tracking the man down through his Bratva contacts but that came to a literal dead end. It was desperation that drove him here.

_"Felicity, we... I really need your help. You have every right to tell me to leave but I had to ask. You're the only one I can ask. You're the only hope I have to protect my family and save Starling from whatever Slade Wilson is planning."_

::: ::: :::

Felicity was in her usual attire of pencil skirt, silk blouse and white lab coat when a hesitant knock broke her concentration.

She was surprised to see Bruce poke his head in. Normally he just wandered in quietly, borrowed or took what he needed and sent her a memo. At first she thought he was going to tell her what Tony had done to begin their prank war and she winced, she had forgotten to warn him about that.

"Ah, Maria let some people up to see you. They're in the lounge downstairs. They're making the other guy nervous. There's something off about one of them... Scent is sort of funny. Not entirely human?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Felicity pushed out of her chair, and tucked the pen she was chewing on, behind her ear.

"Do you want me to get security to send them back out?"

"No, I'll go see. Thanks, Bruce," she said quickly.

"No problem." He closed the glass door and she watched him walked down the corridor to the elevator before she checked her phone. She'd switched it to silent because she was deep in coding and she didn't want to be distracted. Sure enough there were four messages from JARVIS, he could have just overridden her mute - just another one of the reasons she had a small crush on him, he had manners and it was so strange considering he was Tony’s brainchild. There was also one message from Maria and three from Digg. She quickly opened Diggle’s.

_"Sorry for the short notice. We're in town."_

_"We need your help."_

_"Would have asked first but someone was impatient."_

Felicity snorted. So that hadn't changed. She pocketed her phone. Hands in her coat, she exited the elevator to see them standing around the lounge. At least the beautiful elegant African woman had been sitting. It looked like Digg had, had his hands full trying to keep Oliver from searching her out himself.

"Felicity," John greeted her with a wide smile. "Sorry we didn't call first."

She crossed the room and gave him a tight hug. "Would have been nice and you're lucky, Tony has me globetrotting every other week. I might not have been here to greet you and I have no idea what's got the Hulk's panties in a bunch but someone's been drinking bad Cool-Aid and giving off vibes."

No one seemed to understand what she was going on about. So she elaborated. "Dr. Banner, brilliant scientist, glasses, brown hair? Someone, probably the man who shoots arrows as a hobby is making his alter-ego twitchy. We should take a walk and you guys can fill me in on whatever it is you couldn't ask me over the phone."

And that's when Oliver decided to make his roundabout apology.

::: ::: :::

She decided not to go back up to her lab with Bruce still around, so they used Maria's office and work-space on the second floor. 

It turned out to be fortuitous for them because Maria recognized the code name Deathstroke and was able to supply them with a S.H.I.E.L.D dossier. 

The tracking program, which she had designed with JARVIS' help or the AI's code, wasn't fine tuned yet but she was in beta stage of testing so she promised Oliver she would input Slade's profile and as soon as her network got a lock on him, he wouldn't be able to disappear. She would be able to trace him anywhere.

Goodbye was awkward. She had hugged John and so when she came to Oliver she could see that he wasn't poised for a handshake and his face which wasn't normally so open was hopefully expectant. She let out a breath and hugged him quickly. It was so odd feeling his solid chest again. He wasn't warm like Steve but he was just as hard, his arms felt strong and braced her entire back. Steve definitely had the market cornered on ogle worthy shoulder and biceps but Oliver was no slouch. She wiped away the tear that had escaped, damn that pesky nostalgia, and offered Mari a friendly handshake and a genuine smile.

"Try to keep the boys out of trouble. It's hard work but I don't have much in the way of family and these two really grew on me."

"Like a virus?" Mari offered in the spirit of teasing.

Felicity nodded briskly. "It's catching."

The others moved off and Oliver caught her arm before she could turn away. "I'm sorry. For not being there," he said softly. 

"We all deal with grief differently. It just sucked a lot that you broke your promise."

Oliver face fell and he squeezed her arms. Kissing her forehead in a silent apology as he remembered what he'd said when she joined his crusade, that he’d protect her. Leaving her in the Glades wasn’t an oversight, it was slap in the face.

"I came back," he said, knowing it wasn't in anyway going to make up for failing her.

"Stop Slade. Save your family and protect Starling, Oliver. Whatever might have been... That ship has sailed. You don't owe me anything."

Oliver let out a breath slowly and shook his head in clear disagreement. "You have no idea how much, Felicity. I'll sleep better knowing you're happy."

"I am," she said, lifting her chin, desperately hoping he wouldn't read the nervousness in her eyes. Being this close to him was unnerving her. Where was Steve when she needed his strength. She needed his quiet reassuring presence to chase away her old fears of unworthiness and abandonment. Her father had left a lot of scars on her heart. And Oliver had unintentionally picked at those wounds.

He finally released her arms and stepped back with a nod. "That's good. I'll leave you to it. Thank you, Felicity."

"No problem," she said, her voice hitching. Damn that dysfunctional vocal muscle.

The elevator doors closed and Oliver was gone.

"So that was him. The friend. Makes sense he'd be the Hood, or Arrow whatever he's going by these days."

She caught a sense of unease and a hard edge to his voice. Her eyes flicked to his face and she caught a flash of emotion before he schooled his expression. It was too fast for her to read but she knew it wasn't admiration. "He does the best he can."

"Or uses whoever he can."

Felicity put a hand to Steve's chest. The steady, strong thump of his heart already doing wonders for the tension under her skin. She was home. He was home and she didn't feel adrift anymore. "I never did anything I didn't choose for myself."

"Are you telling me he never took advantage of your willingness to help anyone who asks? Felicity, you willingly put yourself in harms way for other people. That man has darkness bleeding out his pores and I don't doubt that he struggles to make up for whatever it is in his past that haunts him but it doesn't make this right."

Felicity wrapped her arms around his waist and stared up at him. "I love you. I will help him because it's the right thing to do. Not because of any sense of misplaced loyalty. Deathstroke is as dangerous as his name sounds. He needs to be stopped. Besides how much safer can I be surrounded by superheroes?"

Steve hugged her back and kissed the end of her nose, her hair tickling his face. He smiled without meaning to. "I worry."

"I know."

"And please tell me they're not still talking about controlling the Hulk."

Felicity wriggled out of his arms and took his hand, tugged him into a walk. "We are not calling it that. It's about helping Bruce take back control. The Hulk operates in rage and fear. He only lets Bruce take back the reins when he believes there is no longer a threat. We need a way to lull the raging beast. Wait!" Her eyes widened in surprise and he could see the proverbial light bulb come on. "You're brilliant - you gorgeous, sexy, adorable man. My man," she said standing on her toes to kiss him soundly before running off.

Steve remained where he was gobsmacked, staring after her, wondering what brainstorm he'd triggered that had cause her eager elation.

A nagging sensation in his gut told him that he wouldn't be fond of the answer but being the devoted boyfriend that he was, there was no way he would allow her to barrel headlong into danger alone. Following that thought, he pushed himself into action and jogged after her.


End file.
